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Joker Says Cats Will Carry Momentum From Win

There wasn't a whole lot of intrigue, but this was a game Kentucky needed. Joker knew that and he made sure his players knew it too.

"I didn't think it was hard to get them ready because our guys were ready, I thought they were raring to go. We had really good practices," said the UK head coach.

"Then you kickoff, usually you can judge this football team how their kickoff team covers kicks, and our first kickoff our guys ran down like their hair was on fire. That told me that our football team was ready to play."

The Cats didn't play clean, and true blue fans might have been worrying a little when Charleston Southern tied it up at 14, but the end result was still a decisive win.

Kentucky did it without Derrick Locke, who many thought would see some action Saturday. Joker said it was Locke's decision to sit out. Instead, Donald Russell and Coshik Williams combined for more than two hundred yards and five touchdowns.

"He (russell) played good. He got the ball in the end zone. He made some big time runs. Both backs made some runs and they missed some runs, but he did what he had to do in this game. That is to hang on to the football and possess the ball at the end of each run and get positive yards," said Phillips.

Defensively, especially in the first half, there was a lot to be desired.

"They ran a sprint out throw back that it looks like a run, yes, it does. But your job is not to stop the run. Your job is to cover your man all over the field, regardless of what happens until the ball crosses the line of scrimmage. We gave up the big play on that. We gave up a couple big runs with the quarterback. But they got stops when we needed them, that's the thing. They got stops when we needed them. But I think we've got to do a better job of creating turnovers, and we haven't created one in the last three weeks."

Overall, this was a win Kentucky needed and they got it, so Joker's a pretty happy guy.

"Hey, I'm .500. Yes, I'm pleased. We're 5 and 5, with two games left. A home game next week in our league, and senior day for guys. You know, about 16 guys that have been around here for a long time. Some that haven't been around here for a long time, it will be an emotional week for those guys, and we'll try to feed off of that. We need this momentum, we need this feeling. We've been in this locker room for five out of the last six weeks that we haven't had this feeling. So I think this is the momentum that we need to carry us through the rest of the season."